Florence

After Venice, we took an afternoon train to Florence and spent two nights there. We stayed in a B&B on the outskirts of town, about a 20 minute walk to the center of town (thankfully, Florence is relatively small). We met my friend Jill for dinner, where I had a really good calzone, and afterwards the three of us went out to celebrate Kara's 21st.

Sunday morning, Kara and I went to see the Duomo, but we couldn't get in because they were having Palm Sunday services. We saw people all day walking around with palm branches. We were, however, able to climb the Duomo's tower, all 414 steps to the top, where we had a great view of the city. We met Jill for lunch at a small sandwich shop and then saw the Piazza della Signoria, which has a lot of statues including a copy of Michelangelo's David. We wanted to get into the Uffizi but the line was way too long, so we walked to the Ponte Vecchio, saw the views, had some gelato, and walked through the San Lorenzo market. That night, we had one of our best meals in Italy in a little restaurant. We had a buffalo mozzarella appetizer, and I had gnocchi in a white sauce. The table wine was also good (you can't really go wrong with wine in Italy).

We also spent most of Monday in Florence. Somehow we decided that the tower wasn't enough, but that the best way to see the Duomo would be to clime the dome, so we did. About 440 steps, but the view was worth it. We made another gelato run before grabbing our bags from the B&B and hiking up to Jill's program's campus to meet with her and Jillian, Kara's roommate at GW, for lunch. For dessert we tried Sicilian blood oranges for the first time. They're a little weird to look at, but they're delicious.

Getting on the train to Perugia was a bit of an adventure. We took a bus to the station during rush hour, so traffic was terrible. We ran into the station with only a couple minutes to spare, and despite the confusing listing on the departure boards, managed to hop on board the correct train.